India and Japan are currently holding their first joint Foreign and Defence Ministers 2+2 dialogue today. The Indian delegation will be led by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and the External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar. The Japanese delegation will be led by their Defence Minister Taro Kono and their Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.
The following is the agenda of this dialogue/ meeting between the two sides:
1. The delegations will be laying the ground for the India-Japan annual summit that will be held sometime in mid-December probably in Guwahati (Assam). This annual dialogue will be a summit level dialogue between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Shinzo Abe.
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2. Japan has indicated that it will be reconsidering its decision to be a part of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement. This is in solidarity with India and respecting its national interests. They will be discussing the finer details of this agreement and its intricacies.
3. The Defence cooperation between the two countries is growing and it is expanding to cooperation in joint production, peaceful navigation in high seas and geo-strategic cooperation. The two nations will be taking this forward.
4. Economic cooperation is an important facet of this relationship and Japan continues to be a valuable investment partner of India including in the North-Eastern part of the country. Discussions regarding investments and trade will be discussed.
5. In this regard, India has indicated that it shall be reviewing its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Japan. The two sides are hoping to settle this issue amicably.
6. The recent regime in Maharashtra has raised a serious concern in the minds of the Japanese investors and the Government of India as the newly elected government has indicated that it may review the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project.
This joint 2+2 dialogue had been decided during the last India-Japan annual summit held in Japan in October 2018.
Ahead of the dialogue, the Japanese delegation called on the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi.